Faculty & Staff
Faculty
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Lori L. Hall, Ph.D.Associate Professor of Instruction
Phone: (727) 873-4077 Research Interests: Hate & cyber-victimization, race & crime, correctional education & recidivism Specialization: Critical Criminology, Trauma-Informed Practices, Transformative Justice, Power and Identity |
Dr. Lori L. Hall is an Associate Professor of Instruction at the University of South
Florida and Director of , an independent, volunteer-based nonprofit organization. With more than a decade
of experience in teaching and research, her work connects critical criminology, trauma-responsive
practice, and transformative justice to examine how institutions respond to harm and
how education, research, and community engagement can inform those responses.
Dr. Hall鈥檚 teaching is guided by her trauma-responsive, community-engaged teaching
framework, which connects attention to students鈥 experiences with critical inquiry
and engagement with real-world justice issues. Her approach combines academic rigor
with supportive, inclusive learning environments, creating opportunities for students
to examine assumptions, evaluate evidence, and connect course concepts to the experiences
of individuals and communities. She emphasizes meaningful participation, reflection,
and the application of sociological and criminological perspectives to policy and
practice. Her courses include Critical Issues in Policing, Trauma and Crime, and Criminal Justice Reform.
Her research agenda examines the relationships among trauma, crime, power, and inequality.
She explores how trauma shapes pathways into the criminal justice system, how justice-system
involvement affects individuals, and how police and correctional personnel recognize
and respond to trauma. Her scholarship also encompasses race and crime, online hate
and cybervictimization, correctional education, and recidivism. Across these areas,
she investigates how institutional practices can reproduce harm and how educational
and transformative approaches to justice can support prevention, accountability, and
healing.
Through her leadership of The TRAIL Center, Dr. Hall works to transform trauma knowledge
into action through research, education, advocacy, and policy change. The organization
brings together scholarship, lived experience, and community engagement to advance
trauma-responsive practices across educational, justice, and community settings. This
work extends her commitment to connecting research with practical approaches to addressing
trauma and institutional harm.
Dr. Hall鈥檚 professional background spans criminal justice, substance abuse and mental
health settings, and the family court system. Her experience includes serving as an
intake officer for a minimum-security incarceration program, substance abuse and mental
health treatment coordinator, and as a caseworker in juvenile diversion programs.
These experiences continue to inform her teaching, research, and work with , grounding her examination of trauma and institutional responses in the circumstances
of the individuals, families, and communities affected.
She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Virginia Tech, with a concentration in Crime/Deviance
and Race. Her dissertation, Race and Online Hate: Exploring the Relationship between Race and the Likelihood of
Exposure to Hate Material Online, examined race and exposure to online hate. She earned her M.A. in Criminal Justice
from Arkansas State University, where her master鈥檚 thesis research led to the publication
鈥Correctional Education and Recidivism: Toward a Tool for Reduction鈥 in the Journal of Correctional Education. She also holds a B.A. in Criminal Justice from the University of Arkansas at Little
Rock.
Research Interests: Trauma and justice-system involvement; institutional responses to trauma; race,
power, and inequality; online hate and cybervictimization; correctional education
and recidivism; transformative justice and criminal justice reform.
Specializations: Critical criminology; trauma-responsive and community-engaged teaching; trauma-responsive
practice; policing and corrections; transformative justice; power and identity.